By Nancy McLaughlin
News & Record
GREENSBORO, N.C. — This mock mass casualty catastrophe started with a hurricane, wreaking havoc like in western North Carolina last year.
“Ughhhhhhhhh,” comes the piercing scream from Becky Mattocks, who was one of the “injured” alongside her son and now being treated in triage tents and a field hospital scattered around the grounds and inside UNCG’s School of Nursing.
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Mattocks is confused one moment, having a seizure a few minutes later and tries to pull the shrapnel sticking out of her son’s side when she realizes it’s there during the training exercise, which is a no-no in real life. The retired physical therapist who is one of the hundreds of volunteers taking part, making the group of nursing students work at treating her.
“They were quick,” Mattocks said. “They didn’t even let my hand touch the shrapnel.”
But she wasn’t waiting for answers as they treated her for multiple issues.
“She’d get up and walk away,” senior Liviya Harrington said of Mattocks as her group was left assessing whether they were, for example, responding to a concussion, someone in the throes of memory loss, while also treating the bloodied gash on her arm. OR all of the above.
Other “victims” had problems including asthma complications, burns, broken legs, hemorrhaging.
“It was definitely more involved than I thought it would be,” Harrington said of Wednesday’s clinical classroom in real time with these real personalities. “There were a lot of things I didn’t think I was going to see and it was happening fast. It’s good practice — just in case.”
That the hypothetical disaster happened on a cold and rainy day also worked to their advantage, said the nursing school’s Dean Debra Barksdale, who was watching the morning unfold.
“It’s not comfortable,” Barksdale said. “But a disaster won’t be.”
The aftermath of Hurricane Helene helped inspire the daylong experience, which took months of planning. Tents were also in place for the healthcare workers to help the community regain its footing.
“The really strong push was weather-related injuries and how do we deal with those injuries and resources,” said Tommy Mann, a professor and director of the school’s Simulation Center for Experiential Nursing Education (SCENE).
“And once they are able to do that, if they have people who need resources, if they have people who have lost their home or lost their medications or have children that need care, how do we get those resources, how do we deal with that?”
These students get lots of hands-on opportunities in class and clinical settings. But Wednesday’s classroom lacked controls that would have been in place in those settings.
The nurses found that the character Mattocks played had not taken her medicine.
“She needs an Oscar, she really does,” coordinator and nursing professor Merry Prior said of the performance, one of the many scenarios she thought up for the mock mass-casualty training exercise with injuries and disoriented survivors. “She was strategically placed to interrupt.”
Others who would end up on stretches or ambulances were also given minimal but specific directions as a starting point.
Local law enforcement agencies were notified of the training response in advance. The patients were in varying levels of distress. The nurses had to prioritize them as part of IMPACT training for future healthcare professions and public service professionals.
IMPACT stands for Interprofessional Mass-Casualty Preparedness and Crisis Training.
Already, UMCG student nurses graduate with “Stop the Bleed” certification for controlling hemorrhages, which is uncommon so early. The school has doubled its nursing students in the last four years.
“They get to see first-hand that ‘I don’t know this’ or ‘I don’t remember this,’” Mann said of what they take away.
Areas around the Nursing and Instructional Building (NIB) and nearby Foust Park, which is between the Foust Building and Spring Garden Street, were marked off to create closed perimeters although it put those who came to watch close to the action.
Other emergency agencies, ranging from the Forestry Service to Guilford Technical Community’s College’s Emergency Medical Science Program, took part.
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